“L’Obs” becomes the “New Obs” again in a gloomy climate for news magazines

The management announces a return to the old name of the magazine, “Le Nouvel Obs”, abandoned in 2014, but above all a new formula.

It’s a surprising name change: The Obs will become again The New Obs in a few days. It is not a leap into the past, assures the management, but rather a return to the fundamentals which made the success of the weekly: surveys, long reports, societal subjects. And a second part devoted to what we call “lifestyle”, or in good French, “the art of living” with pages on culture, trends, debate of ideas…

But by resuming its old name, abandoned in 2014, The Obs above all hopes to regain its base of readers of yesteryear. If no magazine sells as much as 10 years ago, the figures are nevertheless worrying: the weekly only became loss-making again in 2023, after two years of profits.

If we cannot dismiss the argument of the surge in paper and energy prices, nor that of the decline in the advertising market, it must be noted that there are fewer and fewer buyers. We actually see a decline of 7% for The Obs last year, with 190,000 copies sold each week. It still remains the second largest newsmagazine in France, behind Pointalso in decline.

Difficult times for news magazines

There is not a single one that is going back up the slope: -5% of sales for The Express-4% for International mail-1.3% for Current Values, as for Marianne with 130,000 readers.

Moreover, the last title will also try to relaunch itself but in another way: new formula, new model, reduced pagination, lower price on newsstands… And above all, as for The Obs, a focus on digital. This is often where things go wrong for the “news mags”: they have missed the digital shift and cannot catch up with the national dailies, for example. The Obs has only 20,000 digital subscribers, barely 15,000 for Marianne, When The world counts half a million and Le Figaro 270,000.

Some titles are still doing well, even if they are rare in gaining readers: we can cite Mthe magazine of World, Madame Figaro, Doctor Good Or Marmiton. Finally, what sells best remains TV programs. They are six in the top 10 most popular magazines. Quite incredible when the channel schedules are easily accessible on the Internet…